I’m still at working on my Hue Shift Afghan and still learning to use a knit sheath.My progress has been slow but I’m quietly pleased. I’ve finished 16 blocks. That’s 16 out of 100. So I’m in no danger of finishing this project any time soon!

The pattern is from Knit Picks. Its a miter square blanket in ten colors. You can buy the pattern separately or with the yarn. I had a gracious and wonderful and supportive friend handle the online purchase on my behalf (yeah I’m sucking up in the hopes that she’ll do it for me again someday) so I bought the whole shebang. I’m making my Hue Shift in the Rainbow color set. Its for Mom. She’ll love it.

But more importantly to me and you, this is the project I’m learning to use a knit sheath on.  When I was on the 8th block I made my first post with a video of my progress. Don’t bother going to watch that one because I’ve changed my methods since then.

Learning to Use A Knit Sheath From a Master

Soon after I made that first post I discovered Hazel Tindall. She is an author, a knitwear designer, and a very, very fast knitter. Ms. Tindall became the World’s fastest Knitter in 2004 by knitting 244 stitches in 3 minutes. Then she won again in 2008 with 262 stitches in 3 minutes. You can check her out knitting away here in this video.  Its worth a look. And (and and and!) you can clearly see in that video that Ms. Tindall knits with a supported right needle. Specifically she is using a knit belt.

Here is a short video of Ms. Tindall demonstrating her method. She works slowly so we can all get a very good look at her hands. Around the 0:45 second mark she begins knitting at “real” speed and her hands blur.

Using that as my guide, I changed how I was knitting. Its made a huge difference. No more tension problems and while I haven’t put on any serious speed yet, this way of working just feels more natural.

I’m enjoying learning a new way to knit. I always do like to learn new things. I have a very fixed and unshakable opinion (one of many) that teachers, of any subject, should always be learning something themselves. The teacher and the student are two sides of one coin and you can’t be good at one without being good at the other… and I’ll get off my soap box.

I’ll be knitting away on my blanket and posting more progress videos. Hopefully by the next installment I’ll be able to show off a bit!